TRANSIT NEW ZEALAND'S TRUCK RIDE IMPROVEMENT INITIATIVE
This paper presents a criteria based procedure for identifying which areas of the highway network are adversely impacting on the ride and handling of trucks. The procedure has been developed to utilize data already held in road maintenance management systems and so standard measures of road condition and road geometry are employed. To assess the reliability of the procedure and the need for possible refinement, an on-road experimental program involving trucks instrumented to measure in-cab body accelerations and rotations was undertaken. Driver and passenger opinions of ride quality were also recorded. This experimental program confirmed that the procedure accurately locates road sections exhibiting poor ride quality and that the dynamic response of trucks correlates well with travel speed, lane roughness, and the standard deviation of road crossfall. In addition, cab body roll, particularly when combined with cab body pitch, was found to be of most concern to occupants of trucks. This is a particularly significant finding as existing truck ride indexes used for road maintenance management purposes have as their emphasis vertical accelerations, not rotations. A resultant rotational response (pitch and roll) of 4.25 (deg/s) was identified as the threshold value for uncomfortable truck ride. The procedure has been successfully adopted by Transit New Zealand as part of its state highway maintenance management system with over NZ $9 million being spent since 2001 on improving some of the critical sections, corresponding to approximately 90 lane-km and this has resulted in the provision of a better level of service for truck drivers as well as other state highway users.
- Record URL:
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Availability:
- Find a library where document is available. Order URL: http://worldcat.org/isbn/087659229X
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Supplemental Notes:
- Full conference proceedings available on CD-ROM.
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Corporate Authors:
ARRB
Melbourne, Victoria Australia -
Authors:
- OWEN, M
- Cenek, P
- Jamieson, N
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Conference:
- Proceedings of the 21st ARRB and 11th REAAA Conference. Transport. Our Highway to a Sustainable Future
- Location: Cairns, Australia
- Date: 2003-5-18 to 2003-5-23
- Publication Date: 2003
Language
- English
Media Info
- Features: Figures; References; Tables;
- Pagination: 20 p.
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Serial:
- Publication of: ARRB Transport Research, Limited
- Publisher: ARRB
- ISSN: 0158-0728
Subject/Index Terms
- TRT Terms: Improvements; Maintenance; Management; Reliability; Ride quality; Rotation; Trucks
- Geographic Terms: New Zealand
- Subject Areas: Administration and Management; Highways; Maintenance and Preservation; Motor Carriers; Operations and Traffic Management; Planning and Forecasting; I72: Traffic and Transport Planning;
Filing Info
- Accession Number: 00964308
- Record Type: Publication
- ISBN: 087659229X
- Files: TRIS, ATRI
- Created Date: Oct 3 2003 12:00AM